Branding

10 tips on branding

A practical brand platform that summarises the desired content of the brand can provide guidance for external communication. This brand platform can be designed in different ways, and can consist of a variety of components.

Here are 10 components that are often included, with concrete examples from Westander’s own operations.

1. Business idea

A business idea is a brief and concise description of what the company or organisation does, and for whom. The description of your business concept is important in order to ensure clarity. It should be simple, and does not need to be comprehensive.

Example: Westander helps businesses and organisations to generate publicity, build public opinion and influence political decisions.

2. Mission

The mission describes the purpose of the business and why it exists. Avoid the pitfall of seeing profit as the end goal, but you can emphasise financial success as a means of achieving your purpose. The mission should encourage pride, and should ideally address how you contribute to positive social development.

Example: Westander wants to contribute to wider participation in public debate. The more actors are involved in this debate, the better the conditions for both democracy and social development.

3. Vision

The vision paints a picture of what you want to achieve operationally in the long term, and is often formulated as an ideal situation that is essentially unattainable. The vision acts as a guiding star and a compass. It does not need to be realistic, time-bound or measurable.

Example: Westander’s vision is a society in which everyone is involved in the debate.

4. Target groups

Target groups are the people with whom you wish to communicate. Analyse the needs and wishes of these different target groups. Explain who you are here for and what you believe they want.

Example: Westander’s target groups are both potential clients, primarily companies who want to be more active in public debate, and socially engaged potential jobseekers, not least high-performing parents with young children.

5. Brand promise

Your brand promise summarises your undertakings, and explains what your target groups can expect from you. It should deal with something that is important to the target groups, and should ideally distinguish you from others.

Example: One thing we all have in common at Westander is that we want to contribute to positive social development. Our commitment ensures our job satisfaction and guarantees customer value.

6. Core values

The core values are a summary of your values – three to five words that describe your most fundamental, timeless values. Your core values should guide the day-to-day work of your business. Ensure that you describe what these words mean in practice within your specific business.

Example: Westander’s four core values are commitment, openness, effectiveness and action. What each word means in practice in our day-to-day work is described in brief on our website and in greater detail in our recruitment brochure.

7. Positioning

Positioning explains what differentiates you from your competitors and your position in the market. Here, you can choose the areas within which you want to compare yourselves with your competitors.

Example: Westander does not compete on low price, but on high quality and satisfied clients. We aim to be the PR industry’s best workplace, not least for high-performing parents with young children.

8. Tonality

Tonality – the words you use and how you address your target groups – is the linguistic element of your brand, and expresses the feelings you want to convey. Tonality should be highly uniform and consistent, but must also be adapted to suit the channel and the target group.

Example: The three key concepts that describe Westander’s tonality are simplicity, clarity and friendliness.

9. Designation

Your designation is the descriptive phrase used in media reports that explains what you are, for example “occupational pension company X”, “employer organisation Y” or “fuel company Z”. A good designation works both for you and for journalists.

Example: Westander calls itself a PR agency. At the beginning of every press release, we describe ourselves as “the PR agency Westander”.

10. Tagline

The business tagline captures the essence of the brand in a few words, and is sometimes called a slogan or a pay-off. This is usually a line of text that is positioned beneath or next to a logo. A tagline can be a key element in advertising campaigns and marketing materials, but is rarely suitable for use in editorial text.

Example: Westander’s tagline can be found on the cover of our PR handbook: Make your voice heard.

More from our pr handbook